Bernard Arnault, France’s richest man and one of the wealthiest people in the world, is known for arriving one minute late to meetings, both to make clear who is in charge and to avoid shaking hands. The 77-year-old owner of luxury conglomerate LVMH, whose brands include Louis Vuitton, Dior, Fendi and Tiffany & Co., takes private tennis lessons from Roger Federer. His wife has said in interviews that he sleeps in his underwear and has no friends.
There has never been a shortage of stories about the French corporate giant and the man who built it, ranging from colorful anecdotes to intense power struggles. Arnault chose not to comment on his sleeping habits, despite his wife’s willingness to share them with the world. Until recently, he also ignored rumors of tension between the two children from his first marriage and the three sons from his second.
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The royal family of the business world: Bernard Arnault (center) with his family
(Photo: DENIS CHARLET, AFP)
The Arnault clan has long presented a united front, portraying itself as a happy family whose members insist they get along perfectly well. But a recent series of detailed and sharply critical investigative reports by Le Monde journalists Raphaëlle Bacqué and Vanessa Schneider has cracked that carefully maintained image.
The reports may be read as a juicy summer saga, but global markets dislike uncertainty. Stories about succession battles at a company of LVMH’s scale can erase millions in value in a single trading day. Arnault, a brilliant businessman described by people around him as cold and calculating, is known in the United States as the “wolf in cashmere” because of his elegant appearance. This time, he decided to respond.
In his first-ever post on X, viewed by 12 million people, Arnault used unexpected humor to answer the allegations. His response transformed a hostile public conversation into applause and enthusiastic reactions, helping protect the reputation of his empire and perhaps some of its value. Whether it can protect the family itself is another question.
Dior suits, Tiffany diamonds and a soccer club
Dior suits, Louis Vuitton bags, Dom Pérignon champagne, Tiffany diamonds, luxury watches, a media empire, an art collection reportedly worth 1.5 billion euros and a Paris soccer club acquired to please the children are only some of the glittering assets associated with the Arnault empire.
Arnault is the richest person in France and ranks 10th on Forbes’ list of the world’s wealthiest people. According to Le Monde’s investigation, his five children and second wife are maneuvering behind the scenes for control of the company once he retires. Arnault has already extended the company’s mandatory retirement age for its chief executive to 85, leaving his children more time to strengthen their positions in the race to lead the group.
Louis Vuitton store on the Champs-Élysées in Paris
(Photo: Mo Wu, Shutterstock)
He came from an established business family, but his decisive breakthrough began in the late 1980s, when he gained control of LVMH and gradually transformed it into the flagship of French luxury around the world.
In 1973, he married Anne Dewavrin. The couple divorced in 1990 and had two children: Delphine, 51, who heads Christian Dior Couture, and Antoine, 49, who oversees the group’s image, communications and sustainability operations.
Antoine was also responsible for LVMH’s partnership with the Paris Olympics, where the conglomerate’s brands appeared dozens, if not hundreds, of times. The unprecedented arrangement required approval from the International Olympic Committee. Such visibility becomes easier to secure when a company contributes 150 million euros to the event.
Visibility also matters inside Arnault’s offices. According to one frequently repeated story, any unfortunate visitor who arrives wearing a tie made by rival luxury house Hermès, which Arnault once unsuccessfully tried to take over, is asked to remove it. Before being allowed into the elevator, the visitor is reportedly offered a replacement tie from one of the boss’s own brands.
A year after his divorce from Dewavrin, Arnault, himself a talented pianist, married Canadian concert pianist Hélène Mercier.
They have three sons. Alexandre, 34, oversees the family’s luxury wine and spirits business. According to Le Monde, he has set his sights on eventually running Dior, but his older half-sister Delphine reportedly put him in his place, arguing that he lacked the years of experience and understanding of the fashion house that she had accumulated.
Frédéric, 31, is considered one of the most intellectually gifted of the children and is responsible for Loro Piana, the luxury fashion house known for its cashmere sweaters. For years, his route to the top of the pyramid appeared clear, but Delphine has since moved ahead of him.
The youngest, Jean, 28, is responsible for watchmaking operations at Louis Vuitton. His business activity is more modest than that of his siblings, but he is considered highly successful in managing it. Family gossip portrays Jean as the nicest of the five and as someone skilled at navigating the complicated relationships among the second generation of the Arnault dynasty.
As far as is publicly known, the children get along relatively well considering the allegedly toxic environment in which they grew up.
Le Monde’s reporting, however, describes deep tensions involving Mercier-Arnault, who allegedly made life difficult for Arnault’s two older children after the birth of her eldest son, Alexandre. The situation is said to be so strained that Delphine and her husband, French billionaire Xavier Niel, avoid family gatherings whenever possible.
Niel, whose early business activities included adult online services, was previously convicted in connection with a business linked to prostitution. Surprisingly, he and Bernard Arnault are said to have an excellent relationship. That relationship, together with Delphine’s success inside the company, has helped move her to the top of the succession hierarchy.
Mercier reportedly did not welcome the development. According to Le Monde, she believes Niel is trying to gain control of the company. Arnault, who has experienced hostile takeovers from both sides of the negotiating table, has taken steps to prevent such a scenario. His family holds about 51% of LVMH’s capital and roughly 61% of its voting rights.
Breaking the frozen image
After Le Monde’s frontal assault, which was widely repeated with considerable schadenfreude across the worlds of gossip and business, Arnault decided to join X. Le Monde is partly owned by Niel, though its newsroom operates independently.
In a humorous letter that broke with his famously icy public image, Arnault responded to the journalists and said his children had read that they were the royal family of the business world and asked whether they should bow when meeting him. Addressing the Hermès tie story, he joked that guests were allowed to keep wearing one, but added: “We offer them another, more discreet one.”
The investigation also examined his extensive connections with the presidents of France, China and Russia. Arnault responded by asking whether he should avoid leaving Avenue Montaigne, home to many of Paris’ luxury boutiques, and “speak only to my dog.”
On the most sensitive subject, his family, he wrote: “I would like five strong personalities working together in the same company to be described without turning the story into an Italian opera. “They are a team, and they speak to one another every Sunday. For other people, that is called family life. When it comes to us, apparently it is intrigue.”
The post received 51,000 likes and 65,000 responses. LVMH quickly reposted it on its own X account, adding the word “thank you” in oversized letters. The group’s reputation appeared to have survived the blow. Bernard Arnault knows how to turn defeat into victory. He did not become France’s richest man by accident.